Longtime Ed Hale and The Transcendence guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Fernando Perdomo talks about the recording process of the band’s latest album, All Your Heroes Become Villains, available at music stores everywhere, amazon.com or the iTunes music store.
“The All Your Heroes Become Villains album was recorded in a very interesting time of my life… a thrilling two week love affair I had with a talented singer had just ended and I was down in the dumps. I had an awful haircut ordered by a Latin artist I was touring with and I was totally ready to make an amazing record with Transcendence. (We ended up making two but that’s another story!)’ [Editor's note: Perdomo is referring to the band's often leaked and lauded but as of yet unreleased The Great Mistake album.]
“Upon arriving to the studio, I knew instantly this was gonna be an interesting project. Ed now lived in New York City but he had flown down to stay indefinitely to finish the album with the band. He was so amped up. Everyone was. He had this artist, Gina Rowland, who he had met online, there working on her art for the album cover in the studio with us while the songs were being recorded. She sat quietly and listened to get influenced and inspired by the music. We fell in love instantly…
In less than four weeks from its debut, Ed Hale’s latest single “Scene in San Francisco” blasted into the Adult Contemporary Top 40 this week landing at #33 (as measured by Mediabase) earning both #1 A/C New & Active Song of the Week (most active new songs on chart) and #1 Most Active New A/C Independent Artist (BDS/R&R/Mediabase). The song tied for the #4 spot on the Most Added Chart and picked up Sirius XM satellite radio station The Blend for rotation.
”Scene in San Francisco” was written by Ed Hale and William Sommer. Produced and Engineered by Fernando Perdomo, Executive Produced by Roger Houdaille and Nahal Mishel-Ghashghai, mixed and remixed by Zach Ziskin. The song is being serviced to Adult Contemporary radio by MVP Entertainment and South Beach Marketing and Promotion, to Triple A radio by FMQB and Marathon Music, and to College Radio by The Syndicate.
A concept album of sorts, Ed Hale and the Transcendence‘s All your heroes become villains is a collection of songs tackling different genres. Not too diverse to be disparate but still different enough to be dissimilar, it harks to some brit pop, some prog rock and, of course, some blues based rock.
After a strange, chaotic and almost cacophony-laden intro (‘All your heroes become villains – Main Theme’), the band goes for a more straight up approach. ‘Blind eye’ has a foot clearly planted in 70s arena rock with some good ol’ riffing (rocking moments there). It’s a wild song and it’s a safehaven after the more experimental nature of the opening track.
a. Currently up to our necks is what we’re up to! Total madness. But a very cool kind. Semi-controlled madness. Just a lot of incredible things happening right now all at the same time. It’s a thrill and a rush for sure. But it also requires extreme focus and attention, which isn’t usually the stuff of artists if you know what I mean… More than anything else I’d say we’re all very excited about the upcoming release of the new Transcendence album All Your Heroes Become Villains. It’s hitting retail and digital stores all over the world as we speak and people are loving it. The concept of the album is resonating with people at this time. One critic called it “The perfect soundtrack to a beautiful apocalypse.” That pretty much sums it up I’d say. So that’s a good thing. Right now t’s making a big splash on College Radio here in the States.
b. Oddly enough, at the same time we’ve got this other thing happening with my last solo album Ballad On Third Avenue which was totally unexpected. The second single “New Orleans Dreams” has been climbing up the Adult Contemporary charts here in the US and spinning in 21 other countries. Including the UK of course. Right now the song is currently #10 in the US. Because of this, there’s a whole new interest in this solo album. We didn’t see this coming. So we’re literally working PR and promo on two totally different albums at once by the same artist. AND trying to book two separate tours to support these two very different albums. It’s insane.
c. We’re doing a ton of press, which is always fun, and at the same time we’re working on the music videos for the “Villains” album. Of course we are also planning the US tour, deciding which cities to hit and which other countries to books some shows in. That’s a daunting task. But obviously well worth it once we’re on that stage. We love performing live. It’s THE rush of all rushes. If that doesn’t sound like enough, we’re also in the studio and just about halfway through recording two new “Ed Hale solo albums”. We’re still attempting to get our minds around what these new albums ARE… what their all about… We recorded about 20 songs so far and we’ve found that about a third of them sound like Adult Contemporary, a third of them sound like a more mellow singer/songwriter vibe, and another third sound more like they belong on a Transcendence album. They’re more alt-rock. It’s weird how we work like that. It confuses some people… but not us. We’re used to it.
d. And of course there’s the mysterious The Great Mistake album that we still haven’t officially released, but it’s been sneaking around the internet for a few years. We just found the master tapes and gave them a listen and they sound incredible. Just over the top raw garage rock but catchy as hell. So now we are all involved in this heated debate as to “when should we release this new-new album?” It obviously doesn’t make sense for us to release it now. And yet it sounds so damn good we want to! Take French band Phoenix and mix it with some Strokes and Vampire Weekend… add some early seventies Rolling Stones, Velvet Underground or Wolf Mother and you get a pretty good idea of what the sound of this new new album sounds like. It’s done. Just needs to be mastered. I can’t wait for everyone to hear it. I just love it.
We’re super excited to offer these beautiful Ed Hale print tees for sale, and just in time for the holidays!
Also available, are these stylish American Apparel black shirts with “All Your Heroes Become Villains” across the front and Ed Hale and The Transcendence on the back.
Newcomer to the Adult Contemporary radio format Ed Hale, who also happens to have a second new album up for release in 2011 as the singer of the eccentric indie-rock group Transcendence (now renamed “Ed Hale and The Transcendence), looks to be headed for the Top 10 next week. This marks one of the few occasions a non-major label “indie” artist has been able to achieve such a feat. This week’s chart available here.
Breaking into the Top 40 is accomplishment enough. The Top 20 even more so. Once one crosses the Top 10 barrier the competition becomes fierce. But in the newly transformed music business, the old record company models are shifting faster than the labels seem able to keep up with. The best example of this was the recent shock when the break up and sell off of long time stalwart EMI was announced. All of this shifting about makes it appear that the playing field has been leveled, allowing more room for independent artists to reach the same fanbase that major label artists are able to. But Hale, who has been signed to both major and smaller independent labels over his fifteen year career, claims that the terrain is still wrought with challenges for independent musicians attempting to make a living at the art of music making.
Endless greed, war, exploitation, lies. Turn the anger and outrage into a guitar riff, and you have the pulsing heart of “Blind Eye,” the latest free MP3 release from All Your Heroes Become Villains by Ed Hale and The Transcendence. The riff, accomplished by some tricky open-D tuning by Hale, and then mirrored by syncopated bass (Roger Houdaille) and drums (Ricardo Mazzi), sets the emotional tone, giving the listener more than a hint where the song is going.
“It’s cynical as hell but I think it’s how a lot of us feel right now in the US; and all over the world,” says singer Ed Hale. “You [politicians, elected officials] can do whatever the fuck you want to. I’m sick of your lies. I’m sick of your endless wars. So here’s the deal: do whatever you want to. I’m sick of fighting you. So I’m going to turn a blind eye to you and your wicked bs because I’ve got a life to live. But just don’t mess with me or my family. Don’t come near my home. Don’t come near my work or my family. And don’t ask me to help you in your quest to destroy the world.”
Hale’s haunting lyrics, “Everything I hear/And everything I see/I won’t be afraid/You won’t bother me/All your evil ways/With everything you do/I will turn away/You won’t bother me,” are delivered with such steady resolve that you can almost picture the sneer on his face while he sings. The refrain, “Murder Greed Destruction Exploitation Rape Sex and Violence/Take your money Take your money Take your money” whispered quickly and venomously, came from a list Hale wrote of all the things he was protesting at the request of Producer Fred Freeman. About halfway through, “Blind Eye” begins to spin out of control into a giant convulsive climax: vocals, guitar, drums, bass and effects all coming together in a climactic representation of the chaos and evil present in the world today. This is about as heavy as Transcendence has ever gotten in song. And it’s very, very good.
Download the mp3 from Green Light Go or stream it below from SoundCloud.
Longtime Ed Hale and The Transcendence guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Fernando Perdomo talks about the recording process of the band’s latest album, All Your Heroes Become Villains, available at music stores everywhere, amazon.com or the iTunes music store.
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